Cazorla is Quietly putting together an excellent season

I know, I know I'm a total homer when it comes to Santi Cazorla. But in praise of his performance today he is having a quiet monster first season in the EPL.

I see Arsenal fans like him a lot which is great but then they continue to say that Jack Wilshire is better then him which I just don't agree with at all and frankly is starting to become insulting the way people say it (Not just Arsenal fans).

And you hear commentators and writers act like Arsenal is Jack Wilshire and Theo Walcott vs the world, and they should just scrap the rest of the team and buy new players.

Santi is keeping them in the race for 4th place and today he does it again with 2 goals one being a double nutmeg.

He's now at 11 goals and 6 assists in the EPL from midfield which puts him in the top 10 for both categories regardless of position, and when a lot of foreign players hit the wall at this point of an EPL season he seems to be in great form and getting stronger.

So please appreciate this player that Arsenal stole from Malaga. He's really on pace to have a great first season in the EPL and he is great to watch.

If it makes you feel better, the MOTD brood called him Arsenal's best player tonight. As you pointed out, Cazorla is quietly effective, doing things behind the scene, so to speak. Jack is a more hands on, in the spotlight sort of player.

Cazorla is the grand piano to Wilshere's bass guitar

i like him a lot , but so far he hasnt even shown 40% of cesc passing ability. people who thought he was as good as cesc were having a laugh. but it is his first season so we will see how he progresses in years to come.

On the Cesc comparison, they are 2 totally different players.

monster season is extremely generous

Well I tend to think it's a weird blend of both as Cazorla should be in the spotlight as nothing gets more press then goals and assists plus he's already had a couple game winning goals this year and has been the only player to score in some of those games. But he's not British

Wilshire for me is the guy behind the scenes but because he's British and plays in the EPL he is starting to get the Gerrard / Lampard treatment although IMO he doesn't deserve it yet. And with Arsenal's rough season it seems that the British media and a lot of Arsenal fans I know want to praise Wilshire and Walcott and condemn the rest of the team.

The great thing about Cazorla is he couldn't care less. He has no problem being overlooked or not being the top dog in the media.

Plus people might not know this but Cazorla has never had double digit goals in a League season and only once in all competitions and that was just 11. He's already there now and on pace to have a hell of a season.

The goal today was a peach and he was great to watch.

REWB wrote:i like him a lot , but so far he hasnt even shown 40% of cesc passing ability. people who thought he was as good as cesc were having a laugh. but it is his first season so we will see how he progresses in years to come.

FWIW I don't really know anyone who thinks or thought he was better then Cesc Fabregas.

You also might want to remember that Cesc played with better teams while at Arsenal and some of his career with Henry and RVP to pass to.

Cazorla is doing this while Arsenal is rebuilding on the fly and it's very impressive.

Also for the poster who said he doesn't think it's a monster season, for a Midfielder in his first year in the EPL to be in the top 10 in goals and assists and not be a forward and to have never score more then 9 goals in any season in league play. What more do you want from the guy?

It's not like he's playing on a well oiled machine. A lot of people on the team are not carrying there weight. He is playing wonderfully no matter what's going on around him.

He is having an ok season, he has been pretty inconsistent. He shows flashes of his abilities in a few games by having outstanding game but then disappears.

He could have easily had over 15 goals already this season but he has missed alot of sitters this season. He has had more shots then Giroud this season

Wilshere gets more praise because he turns up in big games, even biased arsenal fans can't say that about cazorla. He is a magician in more ways than one, he can dazzle with his skills and he can disappear from the game, sadly for us arsenal fans he has disappeared in games vs Manchester city, utd, Chelsea, Everton, and recently bayern, as well as that shame vs Bradford even though he got a precious assist to please that statisticians. Anyway I have no real desire to praise one of our players to insult another. It's pretty clear that's what this thread is for.

Anyway both players should be better next season, one is adapting to a new league and other is still working off rust from an injury

He is definitely having a solid season. I agree with Legend, he needs more consistency.

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:Wilshere gets more praise because he turns up in big games, even biased arsenal fans can't say that about cazorla. He is a magician in more ways than one, he can dazzle with his skills and he can disappear from the game, sadly for us arsenal fans he has disappeared in games vs Manchester city, utd, Chelsea, Everton, and recently bayern, as well as that shame vs Bradford even though he got a precious assist to please that statisticians. Anyway I have no real desire to praise one of our players to insult another. It's pretty clear that's what this thread is for.

Anyway both players should be better next season, one is adapting to a new league and other is still working off rust from an injury

I'm not going to have this argument again but I think you are turning his performance against Barcelona into a bunch of great big games that Wilshire has had.

I mean the guy has never scored a goal to win Arsenal a game. How can he be a great big game player? (this is not a Wilshire thread BTW and I don't want it to be) I'm not saying goals are everything but come on man, have some perspective.

There are defenders (Verm) on your team that have huge big game goals. If he was a great big game player he would have great big games. Not lose to Birmingham City in the finals. I think you are picking and choosing what games to remember and forget for both players as I don't know how anyone could come to that opinion with the facts out there.

Cazorla has done it twice in the past month or so today scoring both goals. And every game in the EPL is a big game for Arsenal right now as they need to get fourth place. If they lost today it would be a huge loss as there basically out of every other competition.

As for the guy saying Santi should have 15 goals this is the exact thing I'm talking about. Wilshire / Walcott walk on water while Santi needs to be the 3rd top scorer in the EPL from midfield for god's sake. IF Wilshire scores 2-3 goals he is a great big game player and a rock and Santi is inconsistent.

You think you guys may be looking at things a little out of perspective? Top 10 in Goals and Assists is a great first season from a midfield position in the EPL. Especially for 19 mill.

When cazorla is at his best he is better than jack. Cazorlas final product on hsi runs and plays is better, something jack must develop. But cazorla has had a lot of no show games where he is just completely invisible where as even when we suck jack is putting in great performances.. Which is why I think so many seem to claim jack as Arsenals best player imo

Well statistically it's his best season in his career, so that should speak some volumes. Although I know stats don't give the whole picture.

Statistics have been pretty deceiving for Arsenal....

Statistically Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla are having an very good season, some might say they are and i might agree somehwat but all 3 have been inconsistent.

Out of all our players Jack is the only one who is always consistent even when all the others around him disappear. He may not have the end product of those 3 but he still has a long way to go and he is only 21. It took Cesc a couple years before he become a goal scoring and assist tally threat.

Dnmac relying heavily on stats again. What a shocker.

He's been good but inconsistent. Overall it's been a good season- but as has been said, he'll need to pick up consistency. He went through a pretty poor patch for a while.

tbh, Cazorla has been inconsistent this season. He's either been fantastic or non-existent. He went about 2 months there doing very little after a very hot start. He's getting hot again now.

Silva and Mata went through the same thing last year. I think it's just a trait of this type of player.

Quietly? Someone like Robert Snodgrass or Jonathan de Guzman are quietly putting together a very good season, but there's nothing quiet about Cazorla's season, he's been talked about a lot.

Anyway, couldn't help myself...

Cazorla is a fantastic player, that's all I've got to say. I'd like him and Wilshere put in more successful through balls though... it must be frustrating for Walcott and Giroud making all those runs and not getting picked.

Dnamc

While you keep yammering about how people are biased towards Wilshere and Walcott (Seriously?), you on the other hand just love putting down everything that is British.

Both have been having good seasons. Difference is, Cazorla started emphatically then due to various reasons, including being played nearly every game, he started missing in games, or rather he didnt seem to put in the performances that we thought we would see more routinely. Wilshere on the other hand started off slowly since coming back from injury and has just picked up ever since.

Difference is, even if Jack doesnt put in a good performance technically, he will cover it up with tenacity and determination while just about everyone else in an Arsenal shirt decide to crawl back into their shells.

No one is downgrading Cazorla and I am sure we would rather see Cazorla in the first team lineup than most of the other guys. But when I see Cazorla on the pitch, I have not seen the same player that had people drooling at the start of the season since November, bar the odd performance here and there.

I dont know about others, but you cant call Arsenal fans biased because we see the crap that goes on the pitch everytime, so we have a better idea of who is doing well for Arsenal and who isnt.

And btw, you are the one who started derailing the thread in your first post when you brought Jack into the picture (let us not even TALK about Walcott)

So, I find it insulting that you can appreciate Cazorla's performance but consider Jack's performance not upto your biased standards.

(Dont you pull technicalities with me 'Oh, but I didnt say it like that. Did I say this?' Everyone clearly knows what you meant)

Art Morte wrote:Quietly? Someone like Robert Snodgrass or Jonathan de Guzman are quietly putting together a very good season, but there's nothing quiet about Cazorla's season, he's been talked about a lot.

Anyway, couldn't help myself...

Agreed. De Guzman especially has been fantastic imo.

Zealous wrote:

Art Morte wrote:Quietly? Someone like Robert Snodgrass or Jonathan de Guzman are quietly putting together a very good season, but there's nothing quiet about Cazorla's season, he's been talked about a lot.

Anyway, couldn't help myself...

Agreed. De Guzman especially has been fantastic imo.

Liked Guzman when he was in Feyenoord, was surprised he didnt do as well as I hoped at Villereal

urbaNRoots wrote:Cazorla is a fantastic player, that's all I've got to say. I'd like him and Wilshere put in more successful through balls though... it must be frustrating for Walcott and Giroud making all those runs and not getting picked.

Those runs are the reason you see the midfielders getting so many goals.... it creates wide open spaces behind them.

Yeah any top level striker understands that even if he doesn't always get the ball making a run is a good thing.

While you keep yammering about how people are biased towards Wilshere and Walcott (Seriously?), you on the other hand just love putting down everything that is British.

That's unfair. I'd say he loves promoting la liga players (or more technical ones) which is not the equivalent of putting down english players, even though it might lead to similar comments.

On the other hand Flopolski is quietly going where he was bound to: the bench.